Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

So, you wanna see something that will make your jaw drop wide open like mine did? Click on the Marie-Therese Gown Giveaway link above to see what has to qualify as THE most spectaular little girl costume ever created! I actually gasped audibly when the first pictures opened on my computer, no kidding. And here's the kicker: Kathleen, the talented person who made this dress, is GIVING it away! No, really! Each week Kathleen makes a wonderful dress and then just gives it away, FOR FREE, to one of her commenters. Amazing, isn't it? I know. If you want a chance to win this amazing confection of a Halloween costume or any of the other lovely things that Kathleen makes, just head on over to her blog and follow her directions.

It is going to be one lucky little girl (and happy mama!) that wins that dress, and I sure hope it's MY little girl! I'll have every finger and toe crossed between now and Sunday, when Kathleen does the giveaway. Now, where did I put that lucky rabbit's foot?.....

I also wanted to show you all how I decorated my beloved muffin top table for Halloween. I removed all but the Halloween-ish colored jellybeans and filled it with dice, dominoes, spider rings, orange slices (which Maren will NOT quit asking me to give to her), candy corn, eyeball erasers, and my favorite--rubber rats! This table is still my favorite piece of furniture in the whole house. I was poking around eBay and found this large muffin pan. It doesn't have the large wells like mine does but it could still be made into a neat table.

The weather this weekend was lovely, and we took advantage of it by going to a local nursery on Friday afternoon to pick out pumpkins (Nick's, for anyone local). They have lots of fun things for the kids to do (a bounce house, a maze, wagon rides) and it's all FREE! The pumpkins are a bit on the pricy side so I'm sure that makes up for it, but it was still fun and still cheaper than our usual journey to the pumpkin patch across town that costs us $20+ just in tolls. Here's Maren with one of the giant pumpkins for sale:

One of the other reasons I love going to this nursery is that they sell all the unusal kinds of pumpkins that you see in magazines around this time--the varieties that are green and pale pink and shaped like giant wheels of cheese. I find that I gravitate much more to those than the perfect orange orbs that make good jack o' lanterns. The more unusual, warty and bumpy the better! I had to laugh because yesterday we had visitors who, upon seeing my crazy gourds, remarked, "Hey Maren, those are some pretty ugly pumpkins!" I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder for those! :)